Sunday December 23

A grey, damp, occasionally drizzly morning.

Bannam's Wood under the low cloud

Given the weather I hadn't anticipated using my camera at all, but inevitably there was just enough to encourage me to do so.

A few thrushes, and a party of 12 Pied Wagtails were the highlights until I reached the Flash field. Here there was a reasonable selection of birds. The Little Egret flew to the furthest Flash, which also held about 60 Canada Geese and three Gadwalls.

The nearest flash contained about 18 Teal, 20 Mallard, a single female Shoveler, a Shelduck, and 19 Lapwings. Quite a bit better than it has been.

Shelduck

Shoveler and Mallard

Lapwings

The gloomy conditions were challenging for the camera. On the walk back I didn't add a great deal extra, but an apparently tail-less Redwing caught my eye.

Redwing

Sunday December 16

A sunny morning although it gradually clouded over from the south. A very light south-westerly breeze.

The first half of this morning's effort was rather uninspiring, the highlight being a flock of 22 Redpolls. Indeed the day reached a low point as we watched the water trickling out of the main pool through an unblocked pipe.

The Flash field was also largely devoid of birds and it seemed this would be one of our worst visits this year. Then things started to change.

I had noticed some large gulls flying west in the distance. One group in particular, which I had assumed were Lesser Black-backed Gulls, caught Dave's attention when he pointed out that one of them, the small one, was a Herring Gull. This obviously set alarm bells ringing as we realised they had to be Great Black-backed Gulls. This time I got a shot.

Great Black-backed Gulls (with Herring and Lesser)

At the time we thought they were five Geebs and a Herring, but I now think the right hand bird is a Lesser. Later on we saw more large gulls, and the final tally was 20 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 13 Herring Gulls, and four Great Black-backed Gulls.

Herring Gulls

A little further on a Little Egret flew up from a ditch on the other side of a field and landed in a tree. This was the first here since February.

Little Egret

I am guessing this is the single Little Egret which was at Arrow Valley Lake last week.

The final bit of luck was both good and bad. When there are two of you walking around you are obviously hoping and expecting that you will both see anything worthy of note. So when I spotted three drake Goosanders flying south-west just behind Stapenhill Wood, I was anxious to get Dave on them. Unfortunately they were quite low and I could only see through a cleft between two bushes. Every time I tugged Dave to try to get him into a position where he would be able to see them the birds kept disappearing behind the bush. In the end we tried running to the top of the rise, but they had gone.

I did see one in the gloom of pre-dawn on my all day bird watch here in May, but they are generally pretty scarce here. Dave's only record dates back to 2012. So it was a bittersweet moment.

Finally, the livestock on the patch has recently become more biodiverse.

baaaah

Sunday December 9

Showers quickly cleared away to reveal largely sunny skies and a cool westerly breeze.

Just when we had given up on 2018, we go and get a year tick. Unfortunately no photographs were taken because it was a fly over and we wasted valuable seconds agreeing that we were indeed looking at a first-winter Great Black-backed Gull. This was the first here since December 2014, and was therefore pretty noteworthy despite being a gull which any coastal, or even reservoir, birder would barely give a second glance. It was flying with two adult Herring Gulls and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls so the large size was quite apparent.

The gull was the highlight of an enjoyable walk round. The Stonechats were still present, there were still about 120 thrushes (mainly Redwings) stripping the hawthorns, and the Flash field sported three Gadwall, six Teal, and at least 17 Mallard.

Redwing

Alarm calls from a Blackbird led us to disturb a roosting Tawny Owl from the plantation next to Stapenhill Wood.

Roll on the new year.

Sunday December 2

This morning was very mild with a light south-westerly. The early sun shone brightly beneath a bank of heavy cloud which eventually obscured it. Before that the contrast between light and dark encouraged me to take a landscape photograph.

The morning was also characterised by the presence of people and dogs. Three adults and a toddler, all wearing bright red coats, and three dogs, none of which were on a leash. One of them appeared to be lost and was dashing around the pool field no doubt providing an explanation for the lack of birds there.

Anyone lost a dog?

Speaking of mammals, we did see one creature I have never seen before; a Muntjac foal. It's back was spotted, and it was extra tiny. Unfortunately it disappeared under a tangle of brambles before I could get a shot of it.

As for birds, well there weren't many of them. There are still about 50 - 80 thrushes (Redwings and Fieldfares) in the area, the pair of Stonechats was still present, and a visit to the flash field was more productive than last weekend. It contained six Teal, five Snipe, a Green Sandpiper, six Wigeon, and top of the bill three Gadwall.

Gadwall

December eh !